Caring for Hatchlings
by namelessDrifter
Summary: While stranded on earth, Miyuki helps Professor Membrane take care of various experiments. cross posted on AO3. human smeets AU part 1b


_Companion fic to Science Knows No Bounds. i suggest reading that first, but i cant tell u what to do with your life. _

**_Pairings: _**_membrane and miyuki. because they are perfect. _

**_Warnings:_**_ even more bullshit pseudoscience! i am not a scientist. i failed science like three times. what is science? witchcraft! _

_also, second person POV, because we're keeping in line with the first one. can't promise this'll be as good, but y'kno. LOUD SHRUGGING_

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The short little boy you could rightfully call your own was impulsive and foolish and you... you supposed you loved him for it. Irkens had the concept of love, but it was rarely applied to a singular being in an affectionate manner. Irkens loved the empire, loved conquest, loved the look of defeat and the triumph on their nemesis's face. You loved your Dib-smeet just the same, the way you had loved your former mentee.

Irkens rarely took on mentorship roles but there was just something so pathetic about Zim you couldn't resist. You needed to see him triumph and get stronger. You hoped he did, but you had no way of knowing. You loved this smeet the way you loved Zim.

He liked sugar on his already sweet cereal, and he liked to dip greasy french fries in a frosting you learned to make from vegetable shortening and powdered sugar. You had to agree, it was delicious, and it was one of the few earth foods with an acceptable amount of trans fats. He was a child after your own internal emotional core.

"What shall we do today, Dibblett?" You asked him when his paternal donor was downstairs and out of earshot. You smeared a dollop of frosting on the little olfactory nub on his face. He giggled. It was incredibly endearing.

According to Membrane, he was progressing well ahead for a child his age. At only three months he had already reached the babbling stage and could sit unsupported for short periods of time. He had also began crawling on his belly, something you were told usually only occurred at around eight or nine months.

Dib sat in his high chair, contentedly blowing spit bubbles, frosting still smudged on his nose. "You, Dib-smeet, are disgusting," you informed him, though there was no malice behind your words. You were simply stating fact.

You stood and removed his bib, and used it to clean his sticky face before setting it on the table. With practiced ease, you lifted the tiny hybrid out of his chair, and situated him on your hip. "Come, Dib, my Smallest. Our supplies require restocking." It was true. You had checked the snack storage compartments and your stash was dwindling. You were completely out of aspartame rich cake mix, and it couldn't hurt to pick up some more milk and eggs.

You carried Dib upstairs to his room to get him dressed for the day. It always amazed you how much individual care and attention human smeets required, but it did not bother you. It was something to do, and the little hatchling reminded you somewhat of home, so you supposed it wasn't too horrible.

Besides, it was only fair that you give Membrane personal time in your shared lab. The nights were your time in the lab, and after the hatchling was asleep, you both worked side by side. Though you would never admit it, you considered him your rival. He was an inferior species, true, but he was quite tall, and had proved himself to be in possession of a superior intellect.

You weren't sure if humans even understood the concept of Irken rivalry. It was a partnership where the ultimate goal was to help one another become the best they could be through mutual competition. As far as your understanding of human romantic patterns went, humans did not compete with their partners as actively as Irkens did. It was unfortunate. Membrane would never be able to properly reciprocate your affections, though he did a good enough approximation of it.

You set Dib on the changing table, his little socked feet dangling off the edge. You kept one hand on his small side to hold him steady, and pulled out clothes from the drawers underneath with the other.

"Humans are so endearing," you told him as you began to pull off his pajamas. They were quickly replaced with tiny black pants and an equally tiny maroon t-shirt. "Still making your clothing out of plant fibers," you shook your head as you pulled Dib's chubby little arms through the sleeves. "Irkens had abandoned that for carbon nanotubes long before Membrane's kind had even crawled their way out of Earth's primordial ooze."

You slipped little cloth shoes over his feet and gathered him into your arms once more. "Shall we go then?" Dib replied with a childish grin, drool leaving out of the corner of his mouth. You wiped it away without a second thought, and carried him back downstairs.

The stroller sat waiting by the front door as per usual. The supply hub was only a half hour walk from Membrane's base, so it wasn't particularly out of the way. Besides, it was good to get the smeet out of the house every once in a while. You put Dib in the seat, straps automatically securing the hatchling in place.

The stroller was Membrane's creation. In response to it, you had built a holo-disguise watch, which you slipped onto your wrist. With the press of a button, your Irken appearance was replaced with that of a perfectly normal human female, allowing you to obtain supplies without trouble.

You left the base, not even bothering to lock the door behind you. You and Membrane were both constantly upgrading the security system, and it was to the point now that only an idiot would even consider breaking into Membrane's base. When he added motion sensors, you added remotely activated weapons system. He added hand print scanners, you added genetic locks. He added a plasma fence, you added proximity detectors to alert you whenever someone set foot in the yard.

You liked that little routine. Just thinking about it made you smile. Membrane was a good scientist, and he helped to make you a better one.

About a block away from the base you glanced down at the hatchling. He was watching everything he could, taking it all in. He was so _fragile_ with his delicate skin and soft eyes dominated by useless white sclera. "How do you even see?" you asked him. He looked up at you, cooing in reply. Such an _innocent_ thing. You hoped he would grow up strong.

You reached the supply hub, and disengaged the harness straps, allowing you to transfer Dib from the stroller to a shopping cart. You pressed a button on the stroller's handle, and it folded up to fit in the palm of your hand. You smirked, recalling how you not-so-subtly left the schematics for such a function in Membrane's workspace when he began designing the stroller. It fit easily into your pants pocket.

"What shall we get first, Shortest Dib?" you asked him, tone dripping with affection. At the sound of his name, he looked up at you and mirrored your smile. At least, he tried to; he was preoccupied with shoving his hands in his drooly mouth.

You decided to start with Irken essentials, and then finish with the more human ones. The first was aspartame. You were glad this particular supply hub sold it by the bag, instead of in the little packets you had seen elsewhere. While the artificial sugar couldn't even be absorbed by the human body, it was a necessary Irken nutrient, one you were very relieved to discover was widely available on Earth.

It was odd, having to obtain things for yourself. During your reign as Tallest, there were any number of people willing to attend to your every need. Now, the only ones around you were Membrane and Dib. It was quiet, but not unwelcome. Ruling an empire was stressful, no matter how many people were waiting on you hand and foot. Membrane used to take care of resupplying, but you found you prefered to be the one to do it. There was something cathartic about shopping in an alien supply hub.

You haphazardly tossed various things into the cart as you meandered through the deserted aisles. Twelve boxes of sugar and fat free pastries. Various amounts of canned soup (more for Membrane than yourself). Vitamin enriched pureed vegetables for Dib (Membrane had assured you they wouldn't harm him, and he had been correct). More vegetable shortening, margarine, powdered sugar.

You had stopped to get milk and eggs when you were approached by a human female, who was approximately 45 Earth years. "Is that your first one?" she asked, gesturing to your Dib.

"Yes," you replied. "He is."

"Well, aren't you just the cutest thing," she said to Dib. The woman turned to you. "How old is he?"

"Eight months." The lie rolled easily off your tongue. Membrane had warned you that people might find it suspicious if you told them Dib's actual age, and suggested you tell them his developmental age instead.

"You look just like your mommy, don't you?" she cooed at your smeet. Dib grabbed your hand and babbled happily, seemingly pleased with the attention. "He is quite beautiful."

"Thank you," you replied, before she went back to her own devices. You weren't sure what a 'mommy' was, but by her tone you assumed it wasn't a bad thing.

You paid for your supplies before re-opening the stroller and stashing them in the spacious undercarriage and returning home. Dib fell asleep somewhere between the supply hub and the base, having decided that it was nap time.

"What am I to do with you?" you asked the sleeping child as you carried him to his room. "You cannot even stay awake for the full day." You carefully laid him in his crib before returning down stairs to re-stock the supply cabinets.

With that finished, you had nothing to do until Dib woke up, so you decided to join Membrane in the lab. As per usual, the human was busy tinkering with your ship, allowing you to slip past him undetected. He always got so absorbed in his work. It was a weakness, and one you weren't afraid to exploit for your own amusement.

You sat on a counter behind him before making your presence known. "Professor Membrane," you said, your voice cool and calm. The human scientist jumped, and you heard the clatter of a wrench as he smacked his head against the undercarriage of your ship. It took all your willpower to refrain from laughing.

He scrambled out from under the ship and sat up faster than you had thought possible. "Tallest Miyuki," he replied, obviously doing his best to not sound as flustered as he felt. "I didn't hear you come in."

"I didn't expect you would, Professor Membrane," you said to him. You weren't confident enough to refer to him without his title outside of your internal dialogue. He still called you Tallest, so you supposed you owed him that much. "You tend to throw yourself into projects, you know."

"Yes, I suppose that is not untrue." He adjusted his goggles, and stood to his full height, brushing dirt off his white lab coat. "What brings you down here, Tallest Miyuki?"

Always with the Tallest Miyuki. You couldn't hate him for it, but you wished he would show a bit more familiarity around you. You casually crossed your legs. "Dib fell asleep on the way back from the supply hub. I figured I would see what you were up to until he woke up, Professor Membrane." Two could play at the overly formal game.

You hopped off the counter, and began to inspect the progress of repairs on your ship. "How is everything?" you asked.

"Well," he started, "the Hull sustained more damage than anticipated, but surface repairs on what's left are almost done."

"Mmm-hmm."

"Once that's finished, we'll need to figure out how to replace the missing pieces." He walked over to one of the many work tables. You followed. "The main problem is figuring out what kind of alloy to forge a replacement form." He picked up two chunks of metal from the table, one maroon- obviously scrap from your ship- and the other silver. He handed you the silvery metal. "This is the closest approximation I could manufacture, but as you can see it's still significantly weaker."

You loved it when Membrane talked science. Moments like this were what you lived for. You felt the metal in your hand. It was lightweight, and strong, but you couldn't tell from outward appearance alone how it was weaker. "How so?" you asked, looking up into his reflective goggles.

He gingerly took the metal from you, and grabbed his pocket blow torch, holding it up to the metal. It nearly instantly melted in glowing orange gloops. "While strong, it is significantly less heat resistant," he explained.

"I see, that is a problem, isn't it?" You wouldn't even be able to clear the atmosphere if the hull couldn't take a little heat.

"The metal itself isn't found anywhere on Earth," Membrane explained, "But, if I can figure out what base elements your ship's hull is composed of, I could, in theory, artificially synthesise it in the lab."

Your eyes widened at that. "Brilliant," you said, and you meant it. If you were on Irk or Vort, constructing an alloy from base elements alone would be no problem, but you weren't sure if such a thing was possible on Earth. "But are you sure you have the technology for that, Professor Membrane?"

He seemed to deflate at this a little, but not much. You wouldn't have even noticed it if you hadn't spent as much time around him as you have. "Unfortunately, not yet," he admitted. "But, I have started schematics on a machine that will make such manipulation feasible."

You hadn't even realized he grabbed your hand until he was leading you to another table in the lab, the blueprints for the invention in question spread out on it. "Amazing," you muttered. You began to fumble around for a pencil, only to have one placed in your hand by Membrane himself. You smiled at him and muttered a quiet 'Thank you,' before returning to the papers in front of you.

You antennae twitched as you tapped your pencil against your chin, deep in thought, and began to make some changes here and there. For the most part, the design was workable. It wasn't quite as efficient as the vortian equivalent of this machine, but you knew that earth technology was severely limited, and the fact that Membrane was even able to have plans for a semi-operational prototype was remarkable.

You passed Membrane the pencil, and slid the schematics over. He read over you suggestions for improvement, before redoing his calculations, and changing a few more things here and there.

After a moment, he wordlessly returned everything to you to look over a second time. "I think you have it, Professor Membrane," you told him, gently hitting his arm. This could actually work. You didn't think it was possible to make such an advanced piece of equipment from such primitive technologies, but somehow Membrane managed it.

"You think so?" Membrane asked. You turned to look at him. Sometime during your editing, he had lifted up his goggles without you realizing it. Your eyes met. He had the same eyes as Dib, useless looking, with golden brown irises. For just a moment, time stood still.

And then, just as soon as it started, it ended. A small cry reached your antennae. You winced and took a step back from the table, gesturing towards the stairs. "Dib is…" you awkwardly began.

Membrane coughed into a gloved fist. "Yes, right of course."

"I'll just go then," you backed towards the stairs. "Are you coming up for lunch?" you asked before you left the lab.

Membrane nodded, and you turned and left for the upper levels of the base.

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_shooting for about 15k words for this one. so it'll probs be about 6 chapters or so? yea. that sounds bout right. _


End file.
